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Home , Offshore drilling, Refugio oil spill

Oil and Oceans Don’t Mi x

by the Center for Biological Diversity Photo by Drwilsonjjj. CC-BY-SA f Trump and his buddies get their way, Where we drill, we spill drilling could destroy the very fabric of coastal communities, state and local economies, and • From the infamous Santa Barbara in 1969 Icritical for decades to come. Expanding to the BP disaster in 2010 to in the Pacific would result in a coast the in 2016, we’ve seen again and littered with oil and gas rigs and pipelines, causing again that oil spills are inevitable. There is simply heavy industrialization in coastal communities, as we’ve no safe way to drill our oceans. seen in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. • In fact, oil spills are routine; the U.S. Coast Guard The coastline is once again in the oil documented over 40,000 oil spills in the between 1973 and 2011. That’s more than industry’s crosshairs 1,000 per year.2 • The federal government recently took steps to • In just four years following the Gulf spill (2011- vastly expand offshore oil and gas leasing in the 2014), the federal government reported that Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans and the eastern offshore drilling accounted for a total of 1,063 Gulf of Mexico, areas that have been largely off injuries, 477 fires and explosions, 22 well control limits to new federal leasing. losses, 11 spills of over 2,100 gallons of oil, and 11 3 • Oil companies have their sights set on oil and gas fatalities. deposits up and down the California coast, from La • The Gulf experienced the longest mortality event Jolla to Orange County, from Palos Verdes to the recorded for marine mammals and turtles Lost Coast. following Deepwater Horizon.4 The Refugio oil spill killed hundreds of animals, including • The California coastal marine environment is one 5 of the most biologically rich areas in the world, dolphins, sea lions and pelicans. providing key habitat for whales, sea otters, sea The planet is speeding toward a climate turtles and more than 500 fish species. catastrophe • Conventional drilling isn’t the only threat; just last year the federal government also lifted a • Drilling anywhere is a threat to climate and coastal moratorium on offshore fracking off California’s communities everywhere. Scientists warn that the coast, allowing the use of toxic fracking fluid in our overwhelming majority of fossil fuels must remain coastal waters and other well stimulation, such as in the ground, unburned, if we are to avoid the acid fracking and gravel packing.1 worst effects of climate change. • Ending leases in federal waters would • Shockingly, the oil industry has federal permission prevent the release of up to 61.5 billion tons of to dump more than 9 billion gallons of wastewater, greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and oceans, including fracking fluid laced with toxic chemicals, or the equivalent of driving 13 billion passenger cars into the Pacific Ocean every year.10 6 for one year. Don’t believe the oil industry’s lies • New federal offshore leases would allow for oil and gas production over the next 40 to 70 years, long • Along the California coast alone, nearly 410,000 past the point that scientists say fossil fuels must be jobs and $20 billion in gross domestic product phased out.7 rely on healthy ocean ecosystems, through fishing, tourism and recreation.11 This far outweighs any • Coastal California is already experiencing the potential jobs or economic gains that could ever be early impacts of a rising sea level, including more provided from offshore drilling. extensive coastal flooding during storms, periodic tidal flooding and increased coastal erosion. • Clean energy jobs vastly outnumber all fossil fuel jobs in California, by a margin greater than 6:1.12 • By the end of this century, coastal flooding could threaten upwards of 1 million California residents • Even if all of the economically recoverable resources and $100 billion worth of property. Among those off California were exploited, the oil would last for especially vulnerable are large numbers of low- significantly less than 2 years at current national 13,14 income people and communities of color.8 consumption rates. • A wide range of critical infrastructure, such as California cities must lead the way roads, hospitals, schools, emergency facilities, wastewater treatment plants, and power plants will • The state of California prohibits new leasing in state also be at risk. waters because of the unacceptably high risk of damage and disruption to the marine environment Frack no! of the state. • Oil companies have fracked hundreds of offshore • It’s up to California, its cities and its residents to wells in California’s ocean. guard our coastline against dangerous offshore drilling and the worst impact of climate change, • Scientific studies indicate that at least 10 of the including sea-level rise and ocean acidification. fracking chemicals routinely used during these fracking events could kill or harm a broad variety • Our voices matter. When the Obama administration of marine species, including sea otters, fish and proposed offshore lease sales in the Atlantic benthic invertebrates.9 Ocean, more than 100 East Coast municipalities passed resolutions opposing offshore drilling and • Fracking and other well stimulation techniques seismic blasting. In the face of such opposition increase pollution and the risk of oil spills and from residents, their representatives, and more earthquakes. than 41,000 businesses, the Obama administration (Endnotes) removed the Atlantic from the leasing plan.

1 Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Programmatic Environmental Assessment of the Use of Well Stimulation Treatments on the Pacific Outer (May 2016). Available at: http://pocswellstim.evs.anl.gov/ 2 US Coast Guard, Polluting Incidents In and Around U.S. Waters, A Spill/Release Compendium: 1969-2011 (Dec. 2012) 3 Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, “Incident Statistics and Summaries”. Available at: http://www.bsee.gov/Inspection-and-Enforcement/Accidents- andIncidents/Listing-and-Status-of-Accident-Investigations/ 4 National Ocean Service, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Longterm Effects on Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles (20 April 2017). Available at: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/ apr17/dwh-protected-species.html 5 Center for Biological Diversity, Refugio Oil Spill. Available at: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/Refugio_oil_spill/ 6 Mulvaney, et al. The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Federal Fossil Fuels, August 2015. Available at http://www.ecoshiftconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/ Potential-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions-U-S-Federal-Fossil-Fuels.pdf 7 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program: 2017-2022, Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Nov. 2016) Vol. I: Chpts. 1-6. Available at: https://www.boem.gov/fpeis-volume1/ 8 Hauer, M., Evans, J. and Mishra, D. (2016). Millions projected to be at risk from sea-level rise in the continental United States. Nature Climate Change, [online] 6(7), pp.691- 695. Available at: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n7/full/nclimate2961.html?foxtrotcallback=true 9 Center for Biological Diversity, Troubled Waters: Offshore Fracking’s Threat to California’s Ocean, Air and Seismic Stability (September 2014). Available at: https://www. biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/offshore_fracking/pdfs/Troubled_Waters.pdf 10 Id 11 United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, California 2014, Employment: Tourism and Recreation. Available at: https://www.coast.noaa.gov/enowexplorer/#/employment/tourism/2014/06000 12 Beitman, Andy. Sierra Club. Report: Clean Energy Jobs Overwhelm Coal, Oil, & Gas in 41 States and D.C. Available at: https://www.docdroid.net/G6njmYC/sierra-club- clean-energy-jobs-report-final-1.pdf#page=2 13 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf, 2016. Available at: https://www.boem. gov/2016-National-Assessment-Fact-Sheet/ 14 United States Energy Information Administration. How much oil is consumed in the United States? Available at: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=33&t=6